Increased Swelling, Sweating, and Urination after Giving Birth?

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Your body carried extra fluid to prepare for birth. You may have been given extra fluid through an IV into your blood vessels while you were in labor and giving birth. Some women notice that in the first few days after birth they are more swollen all over. Your body also gets rid of this extra fluid by making more sweat and urine.

Sometimes a woman will have trouble with control of her urine. This often goes away by 12 weeks after giving birth. After you give birth, your vagina and labia may be swollen. If you swell too much, it can be difficult to go to the bathroom. 

Please call your midwife or doctor if: 

• You are unable to go to the bathroom for more than 6 hours. 
• You feel burning when you go to the bathroom. 
• You feel like your bladder is not empty after you go to the bathroom. 
• You have a fever. 
• You feel like you have the flu. 
• You need to go to the bathroom more often for longer than the first five days after birth. 
• You cannot control your flow of urine. 

Things you can do: 

• If you can go to the bathroom but would like to make the swelling better, see the article Caring for your Bottom.
• An exercise that helps build the muscles in between your vagina and rectum is called a kegel.

These steps will help you learn how to do kegels: 

• When your bladder is nearly empty, stop your flow of urine by using the muscles between your vagina and rectum (try not to use your stomach or buttock muscles and only do this to find the right muscles, do not keep doing this) 
• When you use the muscle to stop your urine, there will be a tight feeling like when you are trying not to pass gas or stool 
• Your sex partner can also help you find this muscle if you tighten the muscle during sex 
• Once you find the right muscle then you should contract or tighten this muscle and count to three, then relax and do it again
• Tighten and relax the muscle ten times and do this five times a day